🔴Israel to shut down UK consulate in Jerusalem in response to sanctions on settlements
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France is preparing to introduce a ban on products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday, following a wave of settler violence in recent days that has further undermined prospects for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. France has joined the UK and ten other countries in announcing the trade ban on goods, and some services, from Israeli settlements.
By: FRANCE 24 Israeli settlers arrive to confront left-wing activists at an Israeli outpost in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian village of Jannatah, just south of the city of Bethlehem on August 25, 2026. © Ilia Yefimovich, AFP France will launch a process to ban products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank , Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday, amid rising settler violence that has further undermined prospects for a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
"France is going to put an end to its commerce with Israeli settlements in Palestine, along with 11 other countries which have also undertaken similar engagements," Barrot wrote on X.
"Why are we doing this? Because the West Bank is close to exploding – there is frenzied expansion of the settlements, a flare up of violence against Palestinians by extremist settlers, and acts of terror which have been attacked by Israeli authorities themselves," added Barrot.
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The move comes as frustration has grown among some European Union states, which have sought for the bloc to take a decision, but failed to gain a qualified majority with the notable opposition from Germany .
France announced a trade ban on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in coordination with the UK and Canada on Tuesday.
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Miliband said that he feels “a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community”.
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden have pledged to “support further action”.
The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either banned goods from settlements or are in the process of doing so.
"Given the situation on the ground we can't wait, so we are taking this national decision," a French diplomatic source told reporters in a briefing ahead of the announcement. The modalities of the ban have yet to be finalised and it was not immediately clear when it would be implemented.
"This announcement is part of the joint initiative between the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, which was discussed in particular during their meeting in London and to which several of our partners in the European Union and beyond have signed up," the source said, adding as many as a dozen countries would follow suit.
The source said it was not a boycott of Israel.
Britain's decision was met by some angry reaction in Israel , with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling for the UK ambassador to be expelled.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that the ban would be “a grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history", while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned that “if Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain”.
France's ties with Israel have been strained for several months and took a turn for the worse last September after France led efforts at the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state.
The source said the acceleration of settlements was undermining the prospect of a viable Palestinian state and the decision by the Israeli government to publish tenders for the E1 project was deemed a red line not only for Europe but also for the vast majority of the international community.
"We have also seen an intensification of violence committed by settlers, which is unacceptable and, moreover, poses an increasingly serious risk of destabilising the West Bank and the region. We regret that no sufficient measures have been taken to put an end to this situation," the source said.
Under Netanyahu’s government, settlement construction in the West Bank — seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — has surged. The international community overwhelmingly considers such construction to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Netanyahu’s government views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
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